Hey, hey, hey! Sully here with another exciting edition of the CC Dispatch! With Dukasaur's taking over for jricart, the previous Tournament Executive, can you believe I'm now the veteran? Makes one think back on his experiences, where he started, etc. I remember when natty_dread was flying the pink flag and "subliminally" recruited me onto his team of Foundry Reporters (and by "subliminally", I mean he made a callout in the Foundry Discussions forum that I never noticed, then a month later I read an issue of the Dispatch and thought it would be fun to write for the Foundry section). I remember dolomite13's short stint as the Foundry Executive, then when I took over around Issue 43. Can you believe I've been doing this for 14 issues? *Nostalgic sigh*

Anywho, what I mean to say is, writing for the Dispatch has been one of the greatest privileges I've had on ConquerClub, and I know there are some of you out there that would get just as much, if not, more enjoyment out of writing on our staff. We're always looking for writers and reporters, but we are particularly in need now! As you may have noticed, the Freestyle section has been bare for a time now, and safariguy5 needs your help! And if you're interested in another team, I bet Dukasaur and Leehar would love to have a couple new reporters, as would I.

Anywho, as we eagerly await what follows the Round Limits update, just sit back, sip a cup of tea, and enjoy the issue. We've got an interview with good ol' The Bison King (responsible for such maps as Thyseneal, Celtic 7 Nations and California), the Tournament Team's WorldCup4James has his first article for you all, the Foundry section is looking sexier than ever, and either horsemen are getting spanked by monkeys, or the monkeys are being trampled by Armageddon-esque equines. I hope you enjoy the issue just as much as we have putting it together!

Hello again lovers of the Freestyle Section. It is with a heavy heart that I announce that nagerous is stepping away from the newsletter to focus on his other mod obligations. He was a model executive who's tireless pursuit of- oh screw it. He was a fun guy who made sure the section went out on time and kept the writers contributing.

In other news, a few of my writers have either disappeared (I have no idea why and am positive I'm not involved) or are experiencing technical difficulties. If you would like to write for the Freestyle Section or have an article idea you'd like me to write about, please shoot me a PM.

Want to get into the Mafia scene, but don't know how to play or even what it is? Consult these threads: Mafia Information, Mafia and You, and Rules and Terms of Mafia.Too much work? Too lazy to read through everything? No worries, you can always jump right into a game and ask for other players or the game runner to help guide you.

What is "Mafia"?Mafia, for those of you that don't know, is a game that generally takes place in a town, where the townspeople have to determine who the mafia (or "scum") is and lynch them via a majority vote during the day and the mafia try to kill everyone at night and bluff their way out of getting killed by the town.

Mafia Newsstrike wolf started his Actors Mafia. Can't wait to see what kind of actors he puts into them. I personally am hoping for a Samuel L. Jackson role in there, but we'll see.

In Futurama Mafia, the town was saddened by the loss of both Fry and Leela in the same night. Being lovers, they both went down hand in hand. Only time will tell if this was merely a stumbling block in town's path to victory or that the mafia had struck a mortal blow.

Mafia CalloutsCalling all players interested! Some mafia games need some filling:

A Paranoid Gun Owner, or PGO, is a role who automatically kills anyone who targets them in the night. If they were targeted for a night kill, they still die, but the killer is killed as well. More problematically for town, any doctor, cop, busdriver, or other town role with a night action can also be accidentally killed by the PGO. Cult recruitments usually fail, and the Cult Recruiter is killed by the PGO.

Example

Jack is the PGO. At night, Anne, the town cop investigates him. She is killed during that night.

How to Play this Role

Paranoid Gun Owners tend to be Town. The PGO is a somewhat difficult role to play as one must decide how much attention to draw to themselves during the day. Draw too much attention, and it's likely the cop will investigate you at night. Don't draw enough, and you run the risk of being lynched for submarining. While this might be easier to do early on, eventually, the PGO will have to participate actively in the mid to late game. As the number of players decreases, the mafia usually consider killing the more active players as it cuts down on activity in the game thread, possibly buying mafia time to push for a hurried deadline lynch. Especially when the town cop has been killed, the PGO can be more confident that his night ability will not hurt a town role.

Be warned however, PGO is also a possible mafia fakeclaim, so being forced to roleclaim PGO tends to be suspicious to most town players.

Q. How has the Foundry process improved you as an artist?As an artist? I don't really think it has. Like I don't haven't learned any new skills or anything as a result of the foundry. I mean as an artist everything you work on makes you a little bit better in some way, but the foundry experience hasn't really changed the way I do anything or improved my ability in any particularly noticeable way. It has encouraged me to keep my files nice and organized though.

Q. What is/are your favorite thing(s) about Conquer Club?How many maps there are to choose from. That's what attracted me to the site in the first place. God I've got such a boner for 191 maps.

Q. What on Conquer Club could you not live without?World 2.1, Flat Rate, and Saxitoxin

Q. Are you the Sacred Czar of Thyseneal?No but I wish sometimes that I would find a magical wardrobe that would transport me to Thyseneal where I would be a warrior king. That's why I do a lot of drugs all the time!!!

Q. What is this magical land of Thyseneal like?Actually pretty shitty for the most part. Most of the lower continent is still in a bronze age type civilization save for the Tytherian empire. The rest of the lands are divided amongst small rivaling feudal lords. There is much war and famine. Small folk eek out meager livings while the high lords kings and emperors vie for power, and hunger for more lands. It's a brutal dark land where strength decides what is right and weakness is snuffed out by steal.

Q. Has saxitoxin been a better dad lately?He's been an absent dad lately... we don't talk. He doesn't care. He forgot my burfday.

Q. How have you enjoyed your Foundry Assisting?Yeah it's fun. I like stamping things, it feels good!

Q. What are your hobbies outside of CC?A make cartoons, and comics. I don't collect a lot of comics and when I do it's like super old Warner Brothers type stuff but I never really read them, and I'm not really into the whole super hero thing. I watch a lot of cartoons too. Right now I'm into Adventure Time and Regular Show. There was a great show called Robotomy but they canceled that, THE FOOLS! Apparently a lot of the staff came off of Super Jail WHICH WAS AN AMAZING SHOW if you haven't seen it. Like I said I also make my own Cartoons, though they take so damn long to make! That's why I started doing comics it was a lot easier to tell a joke. If you're curious about my work you can PM me.

Q. Which three maps-in-production are you most excited to play?Denmark- It's just a regular type normal map but I think it looks good. I won't play it all that much though probably but it's looking good.

Gondwanaland land- I'm really digging this one. The whole concept that is. I like the whole dinosaur theme and I've thought that Gondawanaland would make a great subject for a map for a long time. I think Declan, would benifit from a little more map making experience though. Some of his decisions... I think he's trying to cram a lot of things in there. We know there are Dinosaurs we don't need Raptors and eggs to be -1. The T-rex's are a nice touch but I think he want's to include every dinosaur he can think of when really they should just be more of a decorative element. So I've been posting and trying to give the best advice I can. BRING BACK THE TAR PITS!!!!!!!

But seriously Declan good work so far, keep it up! See this one through to the end!

Westeros- Yeah I'm shamelessly self promoting my own map but seriously this map will be flipping sweet when it's done!!!! I know it's sitting in the bin right now but I ASSURE YOU, I am in the process of securing the copyright! If I fail to get the copyright look forward to seeing another Midgard type copy cat map

Also a shout out to Fractured China, I can't say I'm looking forward to playing it because I have played it, but that is a seriously great map! I absolutely love it!!!

Q. Which three maps-in-production are the most pleasing to look at?Baltic Crusades!Three Kingdoms of Koreaand Colonial Africa will be I SWEAR!!!!

Q. Is Team Ohio the shit, or is Team Ohio the shit?Uh... we're kind of... the shitty...

Q. If Army of GOD was your boo, where would you take him for an evening date?I think I would have to follow the example of my #1 hero Serge Gainsbourg and do what he did on his first date with Jane Birkin:

quoted from Wikipedia wrote:he first took her to a nightclub, then to a transvestite club and afterwards to the Hilton hotel, where he passed out in a drunken stupor.

Classic Serge! Failing that I dunno, a dog fight?

Q. Will you treasure the "Saxi's Friendship Challenge" coin forever and ever, or will you eventually sell it on eBay for a quick buck (let me know if/when you do, by the way)?GET YOUR GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS AWAY FROM MY PRIZED POSSESSION!!!

Q. Ranging from Saxi to Sexy, how sexy are you?But Saxi=Sexy so essentially your scale can only measure sexiness... that's fine cause I'm to saxi for my shirt.

Q. Which CC-er would you deem "most datable"?The Bison King

Q. What's your favorite band/genre of music?Clutch

Q. Have you ever considered getting into the Mafia scene?NO NO NO NO NO

Q. Have you ever considered organizing a tournament?Not really... too much work.

Q. Derive the quadratic formula.No.

Q. Who died and made you king of the bisons?and before him it was Tony Little

Q. What map, not created by you, is graphically one of your favorites?First Nations of the America, is hands down one of the most visually appealing maps on the site. I'm embarrassed to put my maps next to that one. Amazing work Tisha.

Q. How many pencils can you get up your nose?I don't know, the normal amount? This is a stupid question and you should feel stupid.

Q. What was your favorite avatar to wear?

Q. What role did you play in the forming of the legendary Team Ohio?I don't really remember... Accounts management?

Q. Who is Conquer Club's #1 poster? #infinty poster?The Bison King

Q. How many bison do you rule over?ALL OF THEM!!!!!

Q. In a battle to the death between a bull bison and a bull moose, who would have the advantage? Please answer without bias, and please cite appropriate zoological papers to support your view.Well I can't cite any zoological papers but I can cite this youtube video. Obviously this is a battle between an elk an a bison, to which the bison is clearly the victor. However, we all know that a bull moos is much larger than an elk. It's hard to say. I think the Bison would still have it. Bison skulls are designed to take a much stronger impact than a moose. The moose antlers absorb most of the shock in moose on moose conflicts. The antlers are to wide to effect the bison who is designed for skull on skull contact. The Bison would totally KO the moose I think.

Q. Thanks for your time TBK.No problem, and to all you map makers out there I say "Keep your stick on the ice"

Hello again my friends, and welcome to your favorite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments. This issue we again have our three regular features, but with a twist. The TPA Update is presented by regular contributor angola and Join This? Or Not! is presented by regular contributor sonicsteve. Meet The Tournament Winners, however, is for the first time in seven months written by someone other than me!

Please join me in welcoming the newest Tournament section reporter, WorldCup4James! James is no stranger to the world of Tournaments, having a Tournament Victory Cup and 6 Tournament Contribution Medals to his credit, with several others on the way. He jumped right in and produced an excellent interview with deantursx.

Starting soon, I intend to supplement our Meet the Tournament Winners feature with Meet the Tournament Organisers and Meet the Tournament Directors. This will require some help, I think. Adding James to the team has been a big step, but I think we could definitely use one or two more new reporters. If you write coherently and accurately, and if the world of CC tournaments fascinates you, then this might be the place for you. Please drop me a PM!

After only a year and a half at Conquer Club, deantursx has strung together an impressive ten tournament victories and played over 4,000 games. His most recent triumph was in "Chap's Gambler", an ingenious competition arranged like a real-life high-stakes poker table, in which players bet money and play in an array of different game modes, including Standard, Teams, and Assassin, all the while striving to secure $1,000 "dollars" to claim victory.

So, to start, your 10th and most recent tournament victory was in "Chap's Gambler", hosted by fellow CCer chapcrap. What appealed to you about the tournament?

Well, all of Chap's tourneys are awesome. He runs them all very smoothly. I actually jumped into this one mid-tourney on the play-now forum. This one appealed to me mostly because I'm a gambling addict

Ahh, I see...so your real-life poker skills directly carried over to CC. Tell me you have as much luck with the cards as you do with the Intensity Cubes? RIGHT? I would hope so...

Eh, I get pretty average luck in CC...but I have gotten some insane luck playing poker in the casino. I only play for small amounts though...nothing too crazy.

Ever managed to deliver the "occasional" royal flush? It's good that you keep the stakes low, just enough to pay for the annual CC premium of 25 bucks I notice that you have a very cool signature that states, "Its your Manifest Destiny." What exactly does this patriotic banner, which features a winking George Washington, represent?

Hah, nah I've never had a royal flush. Manifest Destiny is the name of my clan, which is slowly growing and becoming increasingly dominant. We're in our first war now against the Headless Horsemen, and it's looking pretty even so far...but I'm confident MD can come up with the win.

Any goals or milestones within sight that you wish to accomplish here on Conquer Club?

Well right now I think my main mission is to try to be a better clan player. There are so many maps like Waterloo, or Das Schloss, where I've dropped the ball for our team haha. As an individual, I guess the main accomplishments I'm going for are: To try to win premium and to get on the first page of the Tournament winner hall of fame.

19 is the magic number to make it to the first page at the moment! Conquer Club is undergoing a constant, burgeoning wave of "immigration" as more and more people across the globe wish to take their risk-taking to the next level. Just this past weekend, 287 people joined: 136 on Saturday (9/25) and 151 on Sunday (9/26), and 754 have joined throughout this entire past week (Monday to Friday). What tip do you wish to share with new members as they begin experiencing and enjoying this great pastime?

Well I'm practically a new member myself! I'm only in the beginning of my 2nd year or premium. I'd say my best tip would be to get involved in tournaments! Its a great way to get a lot of experience and to meet new players! Once that gets old, then it's time to find a clan! Also, don't do what I did and join like 40 tournaments at once lol...my game load is ridiculous.

I certainly agree with getting involved in tournaments!There is never a dull moment in the Tournaments world, as all sorts of CC players put their skills to the test in search of a tournament medal, or sometimes even free premium!And of course, there are many, many clans out there to join, each with a very unique theme or concept.

Well it's been nice to talking to you! I wish you stellar strategy and incredible intensity cubes as you continue your CC career! Thanks

Also, I'm running a TPA Season 2 event. It will be like all my other tournaments: 8-person, escalating. So, if anyone has a map (or maps) they really want to play on, I'm open to suggestions. Just shoot me a pm.

And now for our regular look at a selection of the tournaments in sign-ups:

It is about time that this column covered alstergren's long running series of tournaments on Beta maps. The concept is very simple; single elimination team games played on beta maps with 8 teams starting. The four events currently in sign-ups are all Dubs: California, Fractured China, Quad Cities and Yugoslavia

Another long running series has three events ready for sign-up. Alpha Beta 19, Alpha Beta 20 and Alpha Beta 21 are double elimination 1v1 tournaments. Each event starts with 32 players playing on well known favourites such as Classic, USA and Feudal War. The losers each round play on Beta maps (in the case of Alpha Beta 21 this is the new Portland map) with the winner of the Beta bracket facing the winner of the Alpha bracket for the trophy.

No fan of the Man in Black could ever scroll past any tournament called I Shot a Man in Reno. If you're not a fan, check out Folsom Prison Blues - great music to roll dice to. Pyrhhus speaks volumes about this tourney when he says, "This is not a simple, ordinary tournament so for the love of all that is holy please read the rules as you will be held accountable for knowing them!". This looks an interesting event, but not one to join simply because you like the song.

Feeling hungry? WorldCup4James has the solution - a festive Pig Roast for the second year running. Again it is worth reading through the detailed rules for this 1v1 tournament where roasters choose the maps and piggies have to beat them.

As a Brit with little knowledge of American sports, I always assumed that GridIron was a fancy way of pressing shirts and that a quarterback was a very small cut of bacon. So it's time to throw off the shackles of ignorance and take a look at an American Football tourney which features a European Conference including England! Global Gridiron Football League features a mixture of 1v1 and Triples games with yardage gained based on how few rounds the game took to complete.

If you're craving tourney action now, check out the Requests for Immediate Players section of the tournament forum. You can be playing very quickly after signing up as a reserve.

Hello again! You've already read enough of me, I'm sure, so I'll keep it short and sweet. Map Spotlight is back with a look at declan.west's Gondwanaland, koontz is back with part 2 of "Sequels and Revamps", thehippo8 gives us the 411 on popular and not so popular maps, and Oliver tries something new! Enjoy!

Dinosaurs, tar pits, and Atlantis before some bonehead sunk it. All describe the pre-human land of Gondwanaland. The land where Antarctica isn't stuck in a proverbial winter and India hasn't started dating Asia yet. New mapmaker, declan.west, has set his time machine to "Past" and has embarked on a journey through the Foundry "before common era," if you know what I mean. I got the chance to briefly interview declan.west about his map:

Sully: How did you come up with the idea to do "Gondwanaland"? Why Gondwanaland?

declan.west: It was a while ago that I decided to make a map so i'm not entirely sure the reason for me picking Gondwanaland. Having been a member of Conquer Club for about a year I wanted to be able to play on a map which I created myself. I quite enjoy the traditional style maps, ie region bonuses and thats it. I also like the look of maps such as First Nations Americas. So bearing those two things in mind I looked for a topic that hadn't been covered so that it was more likely for my map to go through. I also picked Gondwanaland not Laurasia or Pangaea because i'm Australian and it looked like a better shape to play on.

Sully: What inspired you to venture into the Foundry and create your own map?

declan.west: For the reason i said above i really wanted to create my own map and be able to play on something which i had designed. I also felt like i was quite competent at photoshop and was excited to try develop something that looked good. Other maps definitely inspired me such Japan and New Nations Americas.

Sully: How has the Foundry process treated you? What are some of the ups and downs you've faced?

declan.west: Generally the foundry has been very helpful and always positive. There are quite a few people who check regularly on developing maps and this helps a lot because without support there would be no map. Having school and other things I did stop on the map for a while, and was only encouraged to start it again after seeing the positive response of others. I think at the time I wasn't sure what to do when the only suggestions where things like spelling mistakes. Hopefully I can start on the finishing touches and XML code soon.

Sully: What does Gondwanaland bring to the table that other maps may not?

declan.west: Well its the only 'pre human' map which is definitely something that it brings to the table. It also has dinosaurs, which is unique. Though originally I hadn't thought of dinosaurs, and that was added after it became a popular idea. Other than that the map is not complex, though there are a few killer neutrals and degrading territories. I think keeping to the original 'Risk' style is always good.

Sully: Anything further you'd like to add?

declan.west: Crossing my fingers for this map to go through and excited to play it.

Last issue, I brought you all the maps that have a sequel. Hope you all have been working hard, pestering the foundry slaves on which map needs to have one. Well, this issue, it is the turn of Revamps.

Revamps come in many forms. You have the original mapmaker who is just embarrassed to have his or her name on it, you have the competition revamps where everyone is able to have a go and maps that are no longer worthy being in the stable, so get a revamp by someone completely new.

Why?A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, a boy woke up and a strange force propelled him to log onto his computer and start a web site that was called Conquer Club. Why did he do this?, no one knows, how did he do this?, no one cares . All we want is to kill little coloured men on a variety of maps .

The only problem, was that this boy could not draw. And so it seems, he got together a few friends who also could not, and they drew the world in many forms.

When?As I said above, the maps that the site started with verged on the embarrassing (compared to today s maps) and so a group a talented people got together and formed the foundry (not totally correct but close enough for this story). The problem was, that this group was a very mixed bunch. Some had great skills, while others had only a little. And over time, the ones with skills got better, and the ones with little stopped coming . I have managed to find 6 images of the old maps only so these are the ones we will look at today.

CanadaThis...by supermarcolbecameby widowmakersI started with this one as it is the birth of the foundry

lackattack wrote:I love it!supermarcol, this weekend I will open a map maker's forum with instructions on map sizes and how to specify the borders. So please hang on a few more days...

This one came about as a competition.

WidowMakers wrote:For example, once I knew I wanted to enter the Canada revamp competition, I came up with WHAT I wanted to do. I wanted the map to be on a perspective of the globe with the moon and sun, clouds, water. I wanted a realistic map with a big title that went across the top. Well now that I had that idea in my head, I needed to figure out how to do it.

I looked at Google earth, downloaded images, scanned over tutorials, and made pencil sketches on paper to get things to scale and lay out my idea to get a sense of the project. Then based on those ideas and sketches I started to assemble my initial map and along came the issues. The borders looked bad. The clouds looked fake. The perspective was off. The colors did not work. On and on. Eventually I entered into the contest and won.

WidowMakers wrote:Have you ever had any negativity from the original map makers over the revamps?Nope (that short answer is to make up for the previous ones longevity)

but

WidowMakers wrote: But here is the thing. Even though I won, TONS of people hated the map.“Bring back the old map, this one is hideous!” they said. “You should be punished!” shouted others. (Seriously there were some interesting flame wars threads going on about how best to deal with me). And in the end I actually redid the ENTIRE map over to make it better.

gimil wrote:

DiM wrote:

gimil wrote:Dont worry guys ill beat Widow Maker this time

i'll get the baseball bat you get a pipe and we'll kick the crap of of him

now DiM thats not how we do it Ill charm him, you slip the date rape drug in his drink. He'll never know what hit him

These mapmakers are a very hard bunch, try not to mess with them too often.

Here is a look at WidowMakers other revamps.From this by FreakShowto thisThe original Midgard map (Middle Earth) by RjBeals to thisFrom this by Hoffto thisThese ones, I do not have the original images for them.Originals by rocksolid

British IslesThis by Nobungabecame this by gimilThe original British Isles map was made by a first and one time only map maker nobunga, who in my opinion showed some promise and should get back to the foundry right now to make another map for us. The only problem with the British Isles map is that it was made by an American living in Japan at the time. So I asked him why.

Nobunga wrote:I lived in Japan during that time and so I began creating a map of Feudal Japan. I had serious trouble getting Japan to fit attractively in such a small space that I gave up on it. I looked at a world map and thought about what might make an interesting battle setting for as large an audience as possible. The Bristish Isles stood out because the shape of the isles are so familiar to so many, and I had visions of Roman invasions by Cesear and Claudius, Viking incursions. I could see in my head knights, charging into battle to capture keeps. That sort of thing. The United States lacks that older history that I like so much, so I went with the British Isles.

What do you feel about the revamped map? Good and bad.Gimil did a fabulous job with the revamp. Artistically it is quite superior to my own efforts, and I believe his geographical fixes were good ones (I had occasional complaints from Brits about my map). He maintained the balance that I created in the original, in terms of territory sizes, routes of attack, the bottleneck in the West Country, and obstacles. I was very pleased with his revamp. I am quite sure he could have done this map on his own, without my map even being available to revamp.Why did you allow this to happen?> I made my map because I wanted to play my map. Again, the selection during Conquer Club's early days was quite limited. I put forth my best effort, but I am no artist. When Gimil asked if he could revamp the thing, it was years after my map's creation, and Conquer Club had grown a great deal. A place called the "Map Foundry" had even been created and many talented players posted very attractive maps there - they were of a class well above my simple map. So I was more than happy to let my map get revamped by somebody who knew what they were doing with Illustrator (or whatever software he used). My old map was raised to the level of the newer maps.And do you feel the revamp is as good as it could be?> Yes. I'm sure some would not agree, but to my mind, it is fantastic

Nobunga seems to be happy with the revamp but that was not always the way. While trolling the threads looking for images I came across this.

Nobunga wrote:... Hi. Already mailed Keyogi to put the brakes on any revamping of the British Isles. I just wanted to make it public that I reserve all rights to any modifications that are to be done to the British Isles Map.... feel kind of foolish, actually, as I told Keyogi to go ahead and revamp... but I had some rather serious second thoughts... Hate being wishy-washy, but hey, it's among the more popular maps, as it stands now.... I'll clean it up.

Nobunga's clean up never happened and in the end he relented and gimil got to do the revamp of this map so I asked him why.

gimil wrote:This one was not one of yours originally, so how did that revamp come about and what changes did you feel needed to be address?Honestly, I can't fully remember. I always thought the old British Isles map was really ugly (Which is was). I must of one day just asked the original map maker if I could REVAMP his map, and the rest is history. If I remember correctly the gameplay was not changed at all, just the graphics. This was one of the hardest maps I have ever produced, ever! But I am still satisfied with the results and think is a better map now.

gimil right now is going through the main part of the foundry with another revamp of a map, this one being his own Portugal map.

gimil wrote:You are revamping your Portugal map right now, why? What reasons do you have and what goals are you aiming for?I have been out of map making for quite a while now. I decided that the best way to warm up those creative juices (and refresh my Photoshop skills) was to REVAMP one of my old maps. This would allow me to get a feel for the foundry as it is now as well as refreshing my map making ability. Portugal seemed like the perfect map in need of a REVAMP. As I produced better looking maps I became unhappy with the quality of my older ones (specially Portugal) so I though with was a good opportunity to go back and fix this.

Lets hope gimil can get those juices flowing again and that this one does not end up like thisin the binned pile and like I said last time, we can get the third Feudal map.

Middle Eastby Spiegelprimebecameby KEYOGI

Incandenza wrote:Keyogi got mountains of shit over the monochrome Middle East map

Just love that quote and it goes to show, not everyone is happy with revamps.The last revamp for this issue is Nordic CountriesThis by natty_dreadbecame this (also by natty_dread)

natty_dread wrote:Your revamp of Nordic Countries, why do it and not a new map? What were your overall aims with the new one?Nordic Countries was the first map I made, and also (broadly speaking) the place I live in. Even though it wasn't made that long ago, my graphical skills and also my available tools for editing have both improved hugely since then... but the #1 reason was probably that I was bored and had nothing better to do at the time.Overall, I aimed to make the new map pretty similar in theme as the old one, except by using more advanced graphical methods. The map is simplistic in style, with more weight placed on being easy to approach visually than on geographical accuracy (which I feel is a good guideline for mapmaking in general).

Just one more snippet.Like gimil above with Portugal, Telvannia is revamping hisThis map was a collaboration between himself and edbeard with Telvannia doing the graphics. Go on over and give some support to this one. Revamp Bad, New Good.

DiM wrote:With revamps (I think I know your opinion on this) but can you explain your views on them. Good and bad.i don't like revamps. i hate them even. there are hundreds of great map ideas in the forum. there are tons of people who lack graphic skills but came up with a very good gameplay. those are the areas where map makers should focus their talent, not a revamp. zimmah has a very good silk road map planned and all he needs is a gfx guy to help. victor sullivan is planning a very interesting 1v1 concept and he also needs someone to help him. those are just a couple of maps where an accomplished map maker should step in and lend a helping hand instead of wasting time on revamping some old map.however there was a day when i was pro-revamp. it was a day when we still had the earliest maps that contained huge errors that hindered the gameplay. those maps had legibility issues and HAD to be revamped.

But I did ask all of the guys I spoke to what map they would revamp if they could do any.DiM said no to it.

natty_dread wrote:Far east or North America maps

isaiah40 wrote:To be honest, I haven't even given it any thought.

qwert wrote:Definitly Yugoslavia map. I present these project in Signatyre,naty notice,and in speed of light very fast create map,who are look gray,uncolory dead,and present in bad way country,who are need to be colourfull ,live map,with many pictures,and things.

This one is not even out of Beta yet and already a revamp looming. Give us a chance to play this one first.

Okay so shoot me for coming up with a dumb name for this article – but it sounded like a fun idea at the time. The MOLE report is a report on the MOst played maps and the LEast played maps. There now that the bell has been rung it can never be un-rung and from this point on you will never look at a mole the same way again!!

There are a lot of quenched maps to play in circulation – 184 to be exact. And, as at 25 September 2011, my statistics show that these are the top ten maps by games played:

Classic has more than two million games whereas the nearest competition to that is Doodle Earth with just on six hundred thousand. In fact, Classic represents more than a quarter of all games played on this site! Though to be fair all those maps have been around for a while - three from 2006, four from 2007 and two from 2008. And truth be known just over 600 thousand Classic games are speed games and add to that that some 625,000 plus games have four or more players, making this a truly versatile map!

Of more interest, though, are the top ten MOst played maps by active games in play as at 25 September 2011:

Currently there are some three and a half thousand Classic games whereas the nearest competitor, World 2.1, has just one and a half thousand games going. Interestingly, the third most played game is Random!! But that's probably because of the new Random Medal! Again three of these are from 2006, two from 2007, one from 2008 and two from 2009 - but First Nations America's was only quenched on 28 February 2011. Fantastic work! And as an oddity, Doodle Earth doesn't even get a look in this list - falling to 37th place!

At the other end of the extreme are these (LEast number of games played as at 25 September 2011):

Poor Northwest Passage gets the lonely last spot despite the map being quenched on 25 February 2010. Of the eight games in Beta, Three Kingdoms of Korea has already advanced passed Northwest Passage with 1474 games to 1334! To be fair though, this chart is almost meaningless as while three of the maps are from 2010 the rest on this list were only quenched this year!

But how the picture changes when you look at the LEast played active games as at 25 September 2011:

Not one of these games has more than 20 active games going. For me, this is the most shocking list - two of these maps are form 2007, four from 2008, three from 2009 and one from 2010. You can't blame this list on anything other than popularity. Are your favourite games on the LEast list? If so, do something about it!! C’mon everyone let’s move these bottom ten maps out of the low zone – if for no reason than to breathe life into the MOLE report.

By now we all know the basic mechanics of the game. Conquer territories, preferably the ones that form part of bonus regions, and use those bonuses to conquer even more territories and eventually wipe the other players from the game. Simple, isn’t it? But do really all the maps play like I just described? Or are there some meaningful differences? If I play two random maps, can I apply the same overall strategy to all of them? I’ll discuss about this question in this article.

What is “different”?First thing that comes to my mind is, how to tell that a map is “different”? There are several possible criteria. I will define a “different” map using the following one: Two maps are “different” if the general strategy that works well applied to one of them does not work well for the other, or at least there is a second strategy which is more suitable. What do I mean with “general strategy”? I mean a real change in strategy. Just because a map has a different structure it does not make it “different” for what we are discussing here. Many of the region maps are in fact the same map (Ok, don’t kill me yet. Let’s say they are the same type. Better that way? ).Which real “differences” can we find in CC’s catalogue?Now that we have agreed about what “different” means, we’ll discuss some real differences in the catalogue. This is by no means an extensive list, and it’s based on personal opinion. Some of you may find that some “differences” are no different enough, or that a key “difference” is missing from the list. You are welcome to discuss about it. Doing a bit of brainstorming, those are the maps they seem like “different” to me.

The conquest mapThe Conquest map is a map that starts with most regions being neutral. At the beginning players own one or at most a few regions, which can be designated as their homeland. Why are they different? Because they tend to be better balanced and provide more fair, cleaner starts for all players involved. They also make things a bit slower the first few turns, allowing to develop a long term strategy.

The free for all / “port” mapWith this category I designate two types of map which for me are the same. I am talking about the maps with too many adjacencies, which are usually implemented in the way of a “free for all” zone and/or “port” regions. Is not that those two ideas cannot be done well, but in my opinion it is too easy to implement them wrong. Too often the poor implementation of those areas kill all possible strategy, turning it into a mere dice feast. However, there are some maps that do this in an interesting and good way. For example, Supermax: Prison Riot. For maps like Supermax the strategy used for this free for all zone is different from the one used in less connected areas.

The partial continents mapIn those maps is not needed to own the full continent to receive the bonus. Owning part of the continent provides a proportional part of the bonus. They do for a different strategy because breaking the opponent’s bonus is no longer a valid strategy.

The rail mapThis kind of map features key points (mainly cities) and the connections between them, as opposed to featuring territories. Those maps tend to be more closed, allowing for more bottlenecks, but still open enough to make room for several valid strategies and counterattacks.

The “historic battle” mapThis is a map that features an important battle that happened in history. Instead of conquering territories, you conquer officials, or army units, which to me looks really weird. Probably it’s that I have not understood the point of those maps, because they seem to be very popular, at least to a sector of CC members. For me the strategy is to add an abstraction layer and treat all those names as if they were territories.

The messed up mapI reserved a whole category for that type of map. You know what I mean. You look at the map, understand nothing and then try to play your turn anyway. Why is that a different type of map? Because there is only one valid strategy for this map: Lose and try to learn as much as you can during the process so you can do better next time. After losing enough times you start to win. Then you can revenge by obliterating people who have never played those maps. Please note that I am not talking about elaborate maps. I talk about maps which are unnecessarily messed and complicated. That tricky structure does not represent an innovative idea, it is just there to make the map “complicated” and impossible for newcomers. Personally, I try to stay away from those maps unless I am forced to play one either in a tournament or in a clan game. I won’t name any of them to avoid hurting susceptibilities, but I am sure you can think about one or two examples of them.

The unique mapSome few maps are so unique that they really don’t resemble any other map. The example that comes to my mind is Arms Race!, but there are a few maps out there. In fact, some map type started as a unique single map, like the rail maps.

ConclusionWell, it seems that there are a few “different” maps after all. But the number or actually different maps is not very long. Unless… do you think that there are more maps missing? Maybe. But remember that the question was “How many different maps can be”? There could be a missing type in this list, but it could also be a small variation from one of the types already covered. You are welcome to discuss about it

This week we have relatively slim pickings after a bumper crop last week, where we have a short tale on Tofu's demise by Chariot of Fire with interviewee Ace Rimmer. Also included is a TSM-THOTA Conquer Cup 2 update by former Dispatch writer Georgerx7di, and a flashback to the past as we look at his Clan War update 18 months ago on the match between these two epic clans which resulted in a 1600 post, and 17000 views behemoth widely regarded as engendering the most electrifying clan war in the history of the game, with intense action as much on as off the board. It's also intriguing how much of a similar course the war has taken, with the current and likely scores almost identical to the dispatch article in Issue 23.

In other news competition continues to heat up the clan scene in the respective tournaments under way. PM me if you have your own clans tale of triumphs to share, and I give props to RA trips master sekretar, for being part of the privileged 150 to achieve a star

So here is the update. Out of the first 40 games, 29 are complete with a score of 17-14 with TSM in the lead. Looking at games that are basically sure things, the score will soon be 19-14, TSM will win Supermax and even Ardennes is looking like it's pretty much over. THOTA have won Rail africa, its escalating, but the cards are not high enough that the game could be turnedSo of the remaining 7, what do we expect, in other words what will be the score going into the final round. Well, WWII Europe Game 9653626 and Rail Europe Game 9732961 are looking like they will likely be monki (TSM) wins also, so we will likely have a 21-14 lead, not including the last 5 games.

Out of the last 5, two have swung quite wildly. Canada Game 9732965 looked like a sure THOTA win when they had the Maritimes bonus almost from the start. In an amazing swing, the monki's have now taken the bonus, but troop counts are even so this one will go without a prediction.

In perhaps the craziest game we've seen, the swing went the other way. In Cairns Coral Game 9653630 monki's had a 15 or 20 army lead, holding the Bananaland bonus with stack protecting it on all sides, for several rounds! Amazingly there lead didn't grow, it shrunk until THOTA eventually brok their bonus. Monki's now have a slight lead, in troops, but this game could go either way.

The last 3 Cricket, World 2.1, and Stalingrad are all fog, so I won't link them. World 2.2 keeps going back and forth, this will be decided by cards. Stalingrad, skillfull keeps telling me we're even every time I ask, so I just stopped asking. And Cricket, this map is so new, I'm in this game and I still can't tell if we're up or down. It's escalating, so cards might decide this one too.

So there you have it, I predict about 22-18 or 23-17 monkis, going into round 3. Round 3 games have been exchanged recently, so should be a fun finish : )

In our last report the monki's had finally pushed a slight lead of 17-14 over the horsemen, and every game since has gone down to the wire, including a split of two no cards trips games that went 22 and 17 rounds, respectively. The epic battle between these two legendary clans has certainly lived up to the prematch hype.

Big Whiskey wrote:So far it's exactly what I expected.Every game has been close.Each clan has outstanding players that I hold a lot of respect for.I think it will go down to the wire with only a couple of games deciding the winner.

Indeed it has been close all along, but at the midway point in the match, the monkis have opened up a four-game lead, 18-22. THOTA is looking to avoid their first loss after an unprecedented run as CC's top clan, including a 7-0 record in challenges and the victory in the first clan league season. Round 3 starts on January 6, so visit the official challenge thread to check out all the action.

Stay Tuned for the next issue of the ConquerClub Dispatch for an interrogation of Dako. Post any questions you may have for them here --> Interrogation with Dako

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qwert wrote:Definitly Yugoslavia map. I present these project in Signatyre,naty notice,and in speed of light very fast create map,who are look gray,uncolory dead,and present in bad way country,who are need to be colourfull ,live map,with many pictures,and things.

Oh for fucks sake, like I have nothing better to do than stalk some guys signatures looking for map ideas...

You can feel how you want about my maps, I don't really care, but when you start claiming I only make a map because I'm copying your signature, that's just really fucking retarded.

Here is a little correction to the dispatch in regards to the revamps.This is teh exact answer I gave to the question about revamps in my interview.

Well these revamps really need to be divided into two groups: Competition Revamps and Non-competitive.

When there was a competition to revamp a map I entered most of them. Canada, Indochina, Centerscape and Germany were all the competitions that I “won”. I say “won” because I truly did not win Centerscape, Rj beat me by a mile and I just came in and cleaned up some GP, connections and other things for him after he got busy outside of CC. I really only did 15% (maybe) of that work. Midgard is Rj’s map.And if Rj had entered the Germany revamp, there is no way I would have come close to winning. I saw his entry but he never finished it.

But to get back to the question of why I revamped these, I like competition and I like making maps.As far as the non-competitive, these maps were in need of a revamp and the foundry was in a state where competitions were not really there yet. I contacted the original maker of Circvs Maximvs and Montreal to ask. Once he agreed we worked together to make sure the spirit was kept but the graphics cleaned up.

Also game play is not my strong point. I can do it ok and I have come up with a few other maps that play pretty good but I like the idea of taking a fixed set of rules (the old map) and just making it better looking.

Actually it is hilarious how bad the online translators are. I will admit I do not know Russian at all (obviously) but I assumed the translators did.But several different ones give me different things.

What do these say specifically if you don't mind me asking and what should they look like?

If you want correct translations you'd better send me English version so I can translate it. As I know most status reports in military end with verbs (ready, go, fueled, check). The same goes for Russian so I assume the translation will not be the direct translation. Well, if that is what you have intended.